In a dynamic economy, the fortunes of industries adjust because of changes in preferences, technology, international trade, and government regulations. As industries change, demand for occupations and skills adjust as does the need for various training and instructional programs. Accordingly, an information system is needed to help economic and workforce developers, policymakers, educators, incumbent workers, jobseekers, and students assess alternative paths that take into account the expected need for occupations and skills.
The systems and methods described herein provide a comprehensive arrangement for gathering raw data such as economic development and workforce development information including historical and forecasted economic data, organizing that data in a database in a manner in which it can be usefully mined, analyzing the data with a plurality of user selectable analytical tools and presenting mined and organized data to an end user in a way that answers a user's inquiry via a web-based interface. Inventions described herein relate to the manner of gathering the data, the manner of organizing it, the manner of mining that data, the tools that can be selected and utilized by the end user and the overall manner of providing these data in a convenient web accessible manner.
In the past, some of this type of information has been obtained from various government documents and websites. However, the process of collecting and linking the data to make it useful has been cumbersome and often required strong analytical skills. Consequently, information seekers either ignored the information or did not ascertain the full implication of the available information. In this environment, analysts were forced to spend hours collecting, manipulating, and analyzing the disparate sources of data. By the time all necessary data were collected, adjusted, and analyzed, the information often became outdated, sometimes leading to incorrect decisions.
In order to provide a system for better-decision making for economic and workforce developers, policymakers, educators, incumbent workers, jobseekers and students, there is now provided a web-based information system including decision support to assist users in considering alternative decision paths. Such alternative decision paths include, for example, whether to offer or take secretarial training in light of expected growth rates and future job opportunities in a local economy. The inventions are collectively referred to as a “system” throughout this document. The system described herein is implemented using a relational database and graphical user interface that allows a user to query the database to mine the appropriate information addressing a question and then report the mined information in the form of reports, charts, tables, and maps. Dynamic decision support (e.g., as to whether or not to offer certain courses at an educational institution or to attract particular industries to a region) provides information and recommendations to decision makers, tailored to the geographic region, industry, and/or occupation required by the user.
The use of the claimed system allows a user to increase productivity and leads to better decision making. Users are able to quickly select and utilize analytic tools that provide answers to questions that formerly took days or weeks, even months to compile. Also, help tools are provided to guide the user with information and guidelines for interpreting and using data mined from the database.
Economic development, workforce development and education key information outputs, such as historical and forecasted economic data regarding economic variables including but not limited to jobs, unemployment, wages, and/or productivity, etc., and/or any changes therein are stored in a database. The presently preferred database is an SQL database. Access to the data stored in the database are provided via a web portal running on a data server coupled to the Internet. Users access the data using a web browser client. Data stored in the database are updated from time to time, such as, for example, monthly and/or quarterly. User tools are provided for assembling and processing the data in ways meaningful to the user.
The user tools allow the historical and/or forecasted economic data to be provided in various forms useful to the end user including, for example, charted and/or rendered forms. The economic data can be correlated to a user-selected economic variable and/or any of a wide variety of user-selectable parameters, such as:                region (e.g., state, metropolitan statistical area (MSA), planning district commission (PDC), workforce investment area (WIA), county, and/or city, etc.);        industry (e.g., 2- through 5-digit standard industrial classification (SIC) and/or North American Industry classification system (NAICS), and/or uncoded industry, etc.);        employer characteristic (e.g., size, legal structure, headquarters location, historical behavior (e.g., rapid growth, local growth, quality of growth, prone to layoffs, etc.), etc.);        occupation (e.g., standard occupational code (SOC), etc.); and/or        worker attribute (e.g., credential, knowledge, experience, skill, and/or ability, etc.);        demographics (e.g., age, gender, education, etc.); etc.        
Historical and/or forecasted economic variables include, for example, jobs, occupations, and/or attributes. These historical and/or forecasted economic variables can comprise statements and/or estimates of supply and/or demand, which can utilize and/or integrate any of numerous potential factors. For example, historical and/or forecasted economic variables such as wages, jobs, occupations, worker attributes, employment, and/or unemployment, etc. They can relate to, be determined from, and/or comprise absolute values and/or changes, events, emergences, growths, declines, shifts, trends, and/or patterns relating to factors such as:                macro-economics (e.g., gross domestic product (GDP), per-capita income, prices, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, balance of trade, government spending, etc.);        population;        demographics;        consumer spending;        travel and/or tourism;        technology (from the broadest to the narrowest sense of the term);        number of employed;        type of employed (e.g., full-time, part-time, hourly, salary, etc.);        number of unemployed;        type of unemployed (e.g., underemployed and/or actively seeking, etc.);        emerging workforce (e.g., arising from academic and/or other training, entry- and/or lower-level positions, horizontally transitioning, in-migration, etc.);        fading workforce (e.g., retiring, expiring, transitioning away (vertically and/or horizontally), out-migration, etc.); and/or        personal characteristics (e.g., education, sex, and/or age, etc.); etc.        
Using government-provided data for occupation-related worker attributes, occupations can be automatically mapped into occupation groups using data mining and mapping tools incorporating algorithms. Within each occupation group, training ladders can be generated, the training ladders indicating what worker attributes are needed and/or desired to obtain and/or maintain each occupation, to move from one “rung” to another in a “vertical” progression in a career, and/or to “horizontally” change occupations and/or careers, etc.
A user-selected worker attribute, from among many available worker attributes, can be mapped to degrees, certificates, courses, trainings (including training that is on-the-job, hands-on, and/or experiential, etc.), and/or salaries by industry etc., that are suggested and/or required to obtain and/or maintain that selected worker attribute. This mapping can extend to post-academic, post-graduate, graduate, undergraduate, associate, military, technical, vocation, high school, pre-high school, and/or other degrees, certificates, courses, and/or trainings.
This mapping can be general and/or specific. For example, one or more particular courses of study can be mapped to specific regional academic institutions offering each course, the times the course is offered, the capacity of the course, admission and/or registration procedures, the cost of the course, the availability of and/or requirements for financial aid, textbooks and/or other materials required and/or suggested, etc. Similar mapping can be provided for off-campus coursework, such as on-line and/or correspondence courses. Conversely, such mapping can forecast the demand and/or need to provide various degrees, certificates, courses, and/or trainings, etc.
For any user-selected parameter, performance related to any relevant economic criteria can be determined, measured, estimated, rendered, and/or tracked. Likewise, objectives, goals, and/or plans related to any user-selected economic criteria can be selected, entered, measured, and/or tracked at any desired time and/or frequency. Notifications can be provided if performance deviates by a user-determined value from a goal, average, and/or norm, etc. Examples of economic criteria can include:                entrepreneurial activities;        productivity;        wealth creation;        employer retention;        knowledge base and/or workers;        economic diversity;        utilization of community assets (e.g., academic and/or training resources, such as institutions, facilities, and/or personnel; programs; services, etc.); and/or        commuting patterns; etc.        
Thus, for example, for a given region, a goal related to entrepreneurial activities can be set and performance against that goal by the region can be tracked and/or reported in the balanced scorecard. A notification can be provided, such as via an e-mail message to a predetermined individual, if for example, quarterly performance exceeds the goal by more than 5 percent, and/or falls below the goal by more than 3 percent.
For any user-selected parameter, leading and/or lagging indicators can be used to determine performance related to any relevant economic variable and/or criteria. For example, with respect to knowledge base, knowledge workers, worker credentials, and/or worker skill level, a leading indicator such as high school drop-out rates, and/or a lagging indicator such as general educational development (GED) award rates, can be utilized.
For any user-selected region, a desirability index can be generated and/or rendered, the index providing an indication of the desirability of attracting and/or retaining one or more user-selected and/or known industries, employers, and/or occupations, etc. The index can be based on knowledge and/or estimates regarding factors related to each industry, employer, and/or occupation, etc., such as whether it pays above-market wages, whether it is likely to grow, whether it is likely to hire locally, and/or whether it provides worker training, etc. The factors can be filtered, adjusted, and/or weighted as desired.
The database contains a critical mass of workforce and economic development data (refreshed and supplemented regularly), the building blocks to wealth, to users at every level of economic development, workforce development, education reform, partnership consulting, human resources, corporate operations, and so forth. The interactive web-based system described herein provides capabilities that include regional specific economic indicators like employment trends, regional wealth, productivity of a region's workforce, entrepreneurial activities, high-technology trends, and forecasts for occupations and industries for every metropolitan statistical area, planning district commission, workforce area, county and city in a state.
Using the system a user can obtain specialty information by ad-hoc query about the economic trends for the users region in the state. It removes traditional barriers between workforce and economic development analysis by aggregating and mining data for each user to understand the dynamic relationship of key economic indicators on current and future industry and occupation trends unique to their region. Brick and mortar economies undergo chum and the new economy emerges seeking a knowledgeable savvy labor market. The system matches trained workers to available jobs and allows workforce development officials to underpin economic development strategies by providing an inventory of workers who are:                Employed        Unemployed        Underemployed        Emerging        
The system delivers secure, responsive, high-quality, customer-oriented services and support fostering a productive web-enabled database capable of mining key economic and workforce development indicators. Analyzed and organized data from the system can be used as building blocks for engineering a vibrant regional workforce aligned to the strategic goals of the economic development communities. The system is easily and rapidly accessed via a web interface and provides seamless data mining of critical analytics that result in a reliable information coordination environment between workforce development officials, economic development practitioners, education reformers, high-technology industries and occupations, and job seekers.
User selectable analytical tools tie together high-quality government and CEA data along with help tutorials to identify and select alternative actions for a region.
Economic Development officials can benefit from using the system. Economic Development agencies can make informed decisions about their regions industry capabilities that include the knowledge and skills attributes of the local workforce. Among the user tools provided, the system includes the following dashboard analytics (vital economic statistics) for the economic developer end user:                Labor Market and Industry Demand Forecasts by Occupation        Entrepreneurial Activities        Labor Market Inventory        Employment and Unemployment trends        
The user, via a standard web browser and Internet access, is presented with a “dashboard” of choices from which he can mine data from the SQL database and apply analytical tools. The user can use this dashboard presentation to drilldown to specific data related to questions at hand and obtain more detailed information about a region's economic and workforce metrics. Gaps for skills shortages allow workforce agencies to develop regional training strategies for retooling the local labor market based on the economic development regional and local strategies for the regions. Labor and industry demands offer a roadmap for strategic initiative planning and resource allocation based on the best fit industry to workforce alignments.
The system is useful for Workforce Development officials. Workforce Development (WD) officials supply Economic Development (ED) and Education (EDU) reform process owners with current data about the attributes of the local workforce. The system provides a web-based, interactive method to track a region's changing workforce performance relative to a baseline and goals over time. WD can provide ED with the following important statistics about a region's workforce today and discuss strategies for future workforce initiatives to meet the needs of potential firms desiring to locate in the WD and ED region:                Employed        Unemployed        Underemployed        Emerging        
The system can serve as a useful tool in recruiting new firms and employees to a geographical region. It provides information about the current and future economy for the region as it relates to the supply of workers and the demand for workers based on industry needs. Identification of supply and demand results in the occupational and instructional program gap metrics as well as current and projected inventories of occupations and skills.
It has been nearly impossible to find the caliber of data required for understanding the workforce capabilities for all communities in a given state. It is a daunting task for economic development folks to find as complete a source of quality, up-to-date, and objective data that they can use to benchmark their community against any other in the state. The system includes complex analytical tools that calculate the aggregate skills, knowledge and abilities of the region's workforce and compare these profiles to the current and future demands for these attributes by industry and labor market demands using CEA proprietary technology.